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>> and now, bbc world news. >> sandy strikes int he u.s. kills 16 and a surge washes through city is on the east coast. the big apple is a big blackout. the storm sparked fires as well as flooding in at least 50 homes in queens. >> so far this has involved about five buildings. we could not get any apparatus down the block. >> welcome to bbc world news. also coming up in this program, as the economic slowdown goes on, financial heavyweights meet in berlin for a financial solution. we find out how hollywood makes sure some of its blockbusters

appear on chinese screens. hello, people come up on the east coast of america, waking up too damaged after storm sandy swept across the region. 16 people have been killed as a result of the storm and 16 million are without power. -- 6 million people are without power. >> hello and welcome to washington on the east coast of america where the devastating power of storm sandy was unleashed last night, leaving millions in new york without power and widespread flooding in lower manhattan. break hasas

triggered a major rescue operation. our correspondent has this report. >> the city that never sleeps, plunged into darkness. a perfect storm of strong winds, high tides, and a surge of seawater has paralyzed lower manhattan and the water poured into tunnels and underground car parked. no one here has seen anything like this before. >> i don't know what is going on. what the hell is this? >> a power station exploded on the east side of the city. elsewhere, fires broke out like this one in queens. 50 homes were destroyed.

firefighters struggled to stem the blaze. >> it started in one building. it was blowing across. so far, this has involved the five buildings and numerous have collapsed. we cannot get in the apparatus up the block. >> millions of residents were told to stay at home. call 911 unless it is a real life threatening emergency. don't go out and don't drive. >> the coast of new jersey was the first part of the eastern seaboard to feel the full force of the hurricane. it brought heavy snow as well. >> high tide was getting closer and that meant large sections of atlantic avenue were starting to become submerged under water. >> it is still dark and too

early to know the extent of the damage. further up the coast, falling trees adding to the danger. many have been rescued in emergency shelters. >> the red cross is operating 100 shelters along the east coast soap our main priority is making sure our residents have a safe place and a place to sleep. >> millions are now without power and no one can predict when the lights will come back on. the cost to the economy is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars. ouret's talk to correspondent who is in new york. i think they had all sorts of analyses. it was even worse than what they thought. >> i think the worst fears were

confirmed last night when the storm came in all across manhattan playing havoc with public transport systems. floods have leave to many residents stranded. we have also seen some pretty devastating pictures of fires. this is in the borough of queens in new york state. this fire we believe destroying at least 50 homes caused by the power short circuits that have really taken hold and damaged so many buildings. just one of the big problems that the authorities here are dealing with. floods taking control of seven of the subway tunnels connecting manhattan to neighboring boroughs. they are not entirely flooded. the tunnel that connects manhattan to other parts also flooded and many of the road in

and around lower manhattan are now completely under water which has an effect on the power. many of the power lines have been affected. water got into power substations and into electricity stations as they went off line plunge in many parts of manhattan into total darkness. >> it is going to be quite a few days before new york is able to pick itself up. the subway service, flights in and out of the capital, it is going to be days. >> we had an estimate from the head of the transport authority who said it could be four days until they get out the water which is before they are able to assess the damage to see what the water has done to electrical systems and trains still in those tunnels.

they hope they have managed to move as much out of harm's way as possible. also the impact on getting around the city banned in the wind has now dropped so we expect the bridges to be reopened in. in lower manhattan, the area most exposed, it is pretty impassible at the moment. >> thanks very much for that update. we will be back with you throughout the day to keep us posted on the situation. joining us now is david from the disaster relief organization operation. i can see a little bit of daylight behind you. is that a street or a river behind you? >> it is a streak but in the last 48 hours it has been a river.

the floods have now receded. this is the first time i have seen the street in a couple of days. things in virginia are starting to get back to normal. a sigh of relief for virginia but now the focus is turned to the states north of us. >> the rescue effort that you had on stand by there in virginia -- you may be moving up the coast. >> almost certainly. i will be in the office this morning with the rest of my team assessing where the greatest need is. it will surely be north of us. we are also hearing reports emerging of dams breaking in new jersey and fires in different places and then there is lots of flooding. we are going to have to decide this morning where best to focus our efforts. >> take me through last night.

was it as bad as was anticipated? >> here in virginia it was not as bad as we had anticipated. there was a lot of localized flooding but we thought it could have been much worse. we thought there could have been loss of life here in the state of virginia. we are happy to say that it is not as bad here as we thought it was. it looked worse than expected in some places in new york. >> good luck with your rescue efforts if you move up to new york and new jersey and those other places that have been worse affected by hurricane sandy. let's speak now to a resident in lower manhattan, n.y.. thank you for speaking to us. where is it like where you are? >> similarly the flood waters have receded. as of last night, streets were

covered anywhere from about a foot of water to 6 feet of water. right now it is looking better but we did experience quite a bit of damage to one of the community centers where i work. the basement level of that building was completely flooded, up to 15 feet of water. >> 15 feet of water? >> this was the son of the basement area of the building in which we worked. it was almost filled entirely with water. >> a lot of lower manhattan lost power. what is the situation there now? >> we are in a neighborhood in battery park where we still have

power but we are looking across the highway and almost every building is running on emergency backup power or completely dark. >> it must be a very strange sight because even in the middle of the night in lower manhattan to lights are burning. >> it definitely does not look like the view that you get used to looking at every night. >> have you experienced anything like this? >> you know, for hurricane irene, we expected the worst. we had no idea what to expect. the damage is something -- it is definitely something [indiscernible] >> i guess there are an awful

lot of people who will need help and it will be sometime before n.y. get back to normal again. >> getting all of the areas that were damaged help and for people out of power, it is going to be a big operation. >> thank you very much indeed for talking to us. i hope your community center gets pumped out very quickly. that me give you a bit more on this levee we heard about in northern new jersey. it is flooding towns with four to 5 feet of water in the wake of hurricane sandy according to officials at. we are in rescue mode according to the chief executive. what we have been hearing from local people is what has happened is there was a trailer

park there which has been inundated and people have been climbing onto their roofs of their trailers for safety and waiting to be rescued been that there is obviously now a major rescue operation unfolding now in that county in northern new jersey. obviously we will keep you abreast of all that as well. it is not yet daybreak on the east coast of america. back to you in the studio in london. >> thank you very much. i have some breaking news to bring you out of afghanistan where two nato troops have been killed there in the south of the country. we understand from nato authorities, it looks as if this killing took place by a man wearing an afghan police uniform.

a similar pattern we have heard from many occasions over the past few months. two nato soldiers killed in afghanistan. you are watching bbc world news. still to come, he received a 27- year jail term for war crimes. today the former general is appealing against that conviction. ♪

>> you are watching bbc world news. at least 16 people have been killed in the united states and canada as tropical storm sandy sweeps inland. at least 50 homes in golf in flames in queens as the storm leaves millions without power or transport.

the heads of five major financial organizations are meeting with german chancellor angela merkel in berlin to voice their concerns about the economic slowdown. leaders of the world bank, the world trade organization, and the international monetary fund and bank in germany, employment figures have been released. there is a lot to chew over. let's find out what that means for the ongoing your resume crisis. steve, i presume it means there will be some pressure on angela merkel. will that be the message? >> yeah, i think it is. these are the five big umbrella organizations that deal with economics, and the messages coming from them is you have to think about the pace of

austerity in the light of the circumstances on the ground. the message from the imf from example is that if you go too fast with deficit reduction, you may make the economy even worse adn so worse than the situation you are trying to cure. the argument is by enforcing strict rules, you make the patients iller. that message will come across loud and clear. the five people met 24 hours ago and made the same case. he agreed with them. when they meet chancellor angela merkel, it will not be an open door. i am sure it will be very polite and a lot of listening. there is no sign of much movement from the german

government. >> i do not suppose it helped angela merkel when we look at the employment figures coming out today. not comfortable. >> no, because the argument becomes very, very real if your own economy is slowing down. the figures from germany showed the rate of unemployment remaining the same but the actual number going up a little bit. the movement is in the wrong direction. maybe the economy needs a bit of stimulus. >> thanks very much. a former serbian army chief is appealing his conviction of crimes against humanity and war crimes. it was chief of staff and the yugoslav army and was found guilty of aiding and abetting the shelling of sarajevo.

chief of staff, pretty near the top of the trees in many respects. what is his argument? >> right at the top, he was the chief of staff in the yugoslav army and was found guilty of aiding and abetting those on the ground carrying out these crimes. his defense has been arguing that the ammunition on the ground cannot be directly attributed to their clients and saying that the evidence was circumstantial. we are about to hear from him. >> he is serving a 27-year sentence. would that be in holland cholesteric is he going to move back closer to home -- all end? is he going to be moved back closer to home? >> he has been serving a

sentence in the detention center here. he is with other suspected war criminals. >> thank you very much. let get more on hurricane sandy, battering large parts of the u.s. east coast. in maryland, our correspondent is following developments. a very different theme from new york where you are. >> that is exactly right. sandy was a monster. it is pretty cold but new york city was devastated. atlantic city was almost wiped out. that city is waking up this

morning underwater. we are hearing reports of the hospital that was evacuated with hundreds of patients including small children that had to be rushed out of their. president barack obama declaring a disaster area in new york and we are hearing that a levee breach in new jersey outside of new york. the stock exchange in new york city is going to be closed for a second straight day. almost 5 million people here in the united states are without power this morning. 8 states are going to be experiencing no fallout. folks are still very worried about putting this morning. >> interesting the way you talk about new york state in particular. do the people in maryland field that they got away with it? >> i would not say that because

right now folks have not gone out to survey the damage them that we will know the impact in the days to come. there are a lot of people trap and a number of people who took refuge in shelters and left their homes. we are going to have to see how devastating this was. >> thanks very much. in just over a week's time, china's communist party will begin the process of appointing a new generation of leaders. there is one area argued that china lags behind the u.s. that is hollywood films. >> forget balls showing or the propaganda films. jain that is the world's largest growing segment of market and

hollywood is going to great lengths to get a piece of the action. earlier this year when "men in black 3" hit the cinemas, this scene had been cut. when makers of the soon-to-be released "red sword," they reportedly remastered the footage to give north korea the villain's role. to playd's willingness along means it is gaining ground even in a market where local production is protected by a quota system that limits foreign film releases.

despite the protectionism, despite hollywood being kept at bay, local chinese production is still failing to make the leap. they are struggling to take even half the total box office revenue. some chinese directors say the real threat to homegrown cinema is not hollywood by the rigid system of center ship. -- but the rigid system of censorship. >> a lot of chinese directors have avoided making movies about the reality of life because of the risk of censorship. for now it seems chinese audiences are voting with their

feet and china is left wondering how to nurture an industry capable of matching america. >> that is a big challenge. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you?

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